WASHINGTON — The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee yesterday issued a subpoena to the State Department seeking more information about controversial “talking points” crafted in the wake of the Benghazi consulate attack.
Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) demanded documents and communications related to 10 former and current State Department staffers, including Victoria Nuland, who was recently nominated by President Obama as an assistant secretary for Europe.
“Publicly available information about the talking points creates the appearance that administration officials were interested in sparing the State Department from political criticism in the wake of the attack . . . the issue at the heart of the committee’s ongoing investigation,” Issa wrote in a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry.
The White House recently released 100 pages of e-mails from CIA and State Department staff who crafted the talking points.